Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Mike and I had a great time celebrating Halloween with our friends. The festivities started on Friday, with each of our jobs having costume contests. My work always gets into Halloween with games, decorations, contests, and a big "Boo-BQ" lunch for employees. This year, the nursing management team decided that we would dress as the Flintstones...unfortunately, everyone but me and one other girl backed out.

Alisha and me dressed as Pebbles and Betty.

On Saturday, Mike and I got dressed up to go to a Halloween party at the Sanderson's house. We dressed as Jack and Sally Skelington. My costume wasn't the best, but Mike's DEFINITELY made up for it! Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, and I didn't get any of anybody else's costumes.

We had such a fun time with everyone! After a dinner at Red Robin's, we headed back to Ashley and Taylor's house for some delicious food, spooky decorations, and fun games. Thanks for the fun memories!

Gone Private...

As you may have noticed, our family blog suddenly went private. There was an issue with it being read and accessible by some people, so we decided that the best thing to do was make it private. I know the switch was sudden, so I tried to track down as many e-mail addresses as I could on my own. If you are here, I am glad that you received your invitation. If there is anyone I missed, I promise that it was not intentional! Let me know if there is anyone that still needs an invite!

The number you have dialed is no longer in service...

Mike and I have decided to cancel our home phone line. Since we use our cell phones so often, our home phone has only been good for allowing telemarketers and people dialing the wrong number to reach us. If you need to get in touch with us, please call us on our cell phones. Let us know if you need the numbers.

Have a great day!

The CrAzY Corn Maze

On Friday, we went with some friends to a corn maze. This is one of my favorite autumn activities, so I was so glad that we were able to go. I think that the last time Mike and I went to a corn maze was before we started dating, so it had definately been a while.

Mike and I made it out of the maze!

The girls: Barbara, Lori, Ashley, and me

Everyone!

After we found our way out of the maze, we headed over to 7-11 for some hot chocolate and Dunford doughnuts. Thanks for the fun time!

Chicago

During the past week, I went to Chicago to attend the American Health Care Association annual conference with some people from work. Our classes ended around noon each day, so we had plenty of time to sight see and explore the city. I had a great time! Here are my adventures organized by each day. BEWARE: there are a lot of pictures!

Sunday

As luck would have it, my dad was also in Chicago on business while I was there. After I checked into my hotel, my dad picked me up so that we could spend the afternoon together.

First, we went to Navy Pier. This is a boardwalk area that had several carnival rides, activities, and shops. We walked around for a while before heading toward the city. We weren't really sure what to do/see, so we kept walking around until we hit the "Magnificent Mile", which is a portion of Michigan Avenue that is famous for its shopping. We continued along this until we made our way to the John Hancock Tower, which has an observatory on the 94th floor.

Looking down from the John Hancock Observatory

View from the top of the tower. The tallest building on the right is the Willis Tower (Formerly Sears Tower), which is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

Me overlooking the city.

Another view from the tower.

After we finished up at the tower, we headed back to Navy Pier to get some dinner. I had such a fun time with my dad and I am so glad that it worked out to spend time together on this trip.

Monday

On Monday, I went with my coworkers (the DON and CEO) to the Willis Tower. This building is 104 stories and is the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

Wrigley Field

View of downtown Chicago. The tall building on the right is the John Hancock building.

The Willis Tower has these glass boxes that jut out from the building to overlook the city. It was a little nerve-wracking to be standing in a glass box 1,350 feet above the ground.

Looking down from the glass box.

On our way back to our hotel, we went to Giordano's for some famous deep-dish, stuffed Chicago pizza. It was SO good and SO filling - one slice was more than enough. We also stopped by Grant Park, which is right across from where we were staying. This fountain was pretty interesting and had a mini water show every hour. They were also filming part of the third "Meet the Parents" movie in this park while we were there.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to lunch at Harry Carey's, then walked around downtown Chicago. Some of the things we saw included...

...the famous Chicago Theater...

...the Chicago Cultural Center...

This building was built in the late 1800's and used to be the public library. This glass dome was made by Tiffany's and was AMAZING. The entire building was decorated with elaborate tiled patterns.

...the Chicago "Bean"...as well as some other interesting places, such as the flagship Macy's store, the Tribune Building (made with pieces of other famous places from around the world, like the Taj Mahal and the Berlin Wall), and the Water Building.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we went to the Chicago Institute of Art. Their galleries featured amazing pieces from several artists, countries, and time periods. Some of my favorites were:

American Gothic, by Grant Wood

The Coffin and Mummy of Paankhenamun

Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso

On Thursday, we came home. It was nice to get away for a few days, even it technically was for work. I would love to go back and spend more time exploring the city!

Oktoberfest

Last weekend, Mike and I went with my family for our annual afternoon at Oktoberfest. Snowbird is always so beautiful this time of year - the leaves were beginning to change, the air was crisp, and we could not have asked for better weather. Thank you for the delicious food, great music, and fun memories!

Keith Urban and Birthday Fun

To celebrate our birthdays, my sister (Beth) and I decided to get tickets to the Keith Urban concert. This was my fifth time seeing him (Beth's 3rd), and he always puts on such a great show. We got to the concert a bit early, so we decided to take some pictures...

...in front of Keith Urban's tour busses...

...and in front of these huge posters they had outside the ESA.

We also decided to go see what was happening around the radio station booths. We figured that maybe we could get a free t-shirt or something. Lucky for us, we did much better than a free t-shirt...we got upgraded tickets! A few minutes after we went over to KBUL-93, they started asking if anyone wanted better seats to the show. They then asked if there was anyone who had section seats with three numbers (meaning they were upper bowl). People started calling out which row they were on, so Beth and I looked at our tickets and realized they were in section 140, row 18. We started screaming that we were row 18, but they couldn't hear us, so Beth ran to the front with our tickets. She was able to get their attention, and after she told them that we had horrible seats and that we were both celebrating birthdays that week, they gave us tickets for section 18 row 11...WAY BETTER SEATS!!! We were so excited!

The concert was amazing. Keith is so interactive with the audience, which makes it so much more fun. He came out into the audience several times to play songs. After his second encore was over, he stayed out on stage so that he could sign autographs for his fans.


Seriously, such a great show. If you are a country music fan, you need to put a Keith Urban concert on your to-do list.

When I came home from the concert, I discovered that Mike had baked me a cake and had birthday presents waiting for me. It was such a nice surprise! He also "helped" Faline frame a picture of herself and write a note, which said, "Dear Mom, I asked Dad to frame this for me at the last minute. I don't have any money, but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Love your puppy, Faline." The note made me laugh and I thought it was so thoughtful of Faline to "think" of that all on her own. :)

We finished up the birthday celebrations by going to Macaroni Grill for dinner with the Sandersons, Olsens, and Barbara on Friday and then getting together with my family on Sunday to celebrate Beth, Khemia, and my birthdays. Such a fun week!